The Texas Rangers had a disappointing season. On the field, the team missed the playoffs for the second year in a row due to an underperforming roster and injuries. But the team is getting some heat in the offseason, too.
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Every year, all 30 MLB teams participate in Spirit Day, an event promoted by LGBTQ+ media organization GLAAD. Spirit Day is meant to raise awareness of bullying against LGBTQ+ kids and is celebrated annually on the third Thursday of October. On social media, MLB teams rebrand their profiles with the color purple and post a boilerplate message about Spirit Day, sharing how LGBTQ+ youth face bullying at disproportionate rates. The Chicago Cubs, for instance, wrote on X: “We are proud to join @MLB and its clubs in taking a stand against bullying of LGBTQ+ youth. #SpiritDay.”
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The Houston Astros had a similar message. “Today, we stand with @MLB in taking a firm stance against bullying of LGBTQ+ youth, who face disproportionately higher rates of harassment compared to their peers,” read a post on the team’s X account. “No child deserves to be bullied for expressing who they are.”
Today, we stand with @MLB in taking a firm stance against bullying of LGBTQ+ youth, who face disproportionately higher rates of harassment compared to their peers. No child deserves to be bullied for expressing who they are.#SpiritDay pic.twitter.com/LKUslaGzW1— Houston Astros (@astros) October 16, 2025
But the Texas Rangers, who have long been MLB’s lone holdout when it comes to celebrating the LGBTQ+ community, modified their Spirit Day message. The Rangers excluded the LGBTQ+ acronym, writing instead that “No one should be bullied or called names simply for being who they are, no matter your background, race, religion, ability, sexual orientation, or gender identity. #SpiritDay.”
This year’s 2025 Spirit Day post is certainly better than a 2021 post the Ranger’s social media shared that got the team significant backlash. In 2021, the team asked fans to “join us in taking a stand against bullying and in support of inclusion. #SpiritDay.” That post was pilloried for removing any semblance of the sentiment behind Spirit Day, putting a spotlight on the Rangers’ refusal to host an LGBTQ+ Pride Night (something the team has refused to do since).
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But the recent Spirit Day post still didn’t sit well with many baseball fans either. Some chastised the Rangers for holding a moment of silence during a game in honor of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last month and was criticized for espousing anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric when he was alive. Other fans felt that by refusing to have a Pride Night, the Rangers were, in fact, participating in the very bullying they claimed to stand against.
“Only MLB team without any sort of pride night btw,” a fan wrote in a quote tweet.
“Very noticeable omission of the ‘support lgbtq youth’ you see in all the other posts,” another fan said.
“Yall did not believe this before when you refused to hold pride night,” an X user said.
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“‘All Lives Matter’ ass post,” an Astros fan posted.
The Texas Rangers’ continued refusal to acknowledge the LGBTQ+ community, from Pride events to something as small as an anti-bullying initiative, continues to set them apart from other MLB teams—and not in a good way.
Spirit Day is about spreading awareness about bullying that LGBTQ+ youth face. Globe Life Field will probably not sink into the earth if the Rangers acknowledge that LGBTQ+ youth face bullying at disproportionately higher rates.
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That the team managed to say that bullying against youth based on race, sexuality or gender identity is wrong is certainly nice.
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